Join us at our Groundbreaking on Wednesday

Construction is about to begin on Bread for the City's Northwest Center expansion, and we're inviting friends and neighbors to join us to celebrate!

On Wednesday, at 8:30 AM (1525 7th Street NW), we'll break ground. If you'd like to attend, please email us to RSVP.

Bread for the City board members, staff, volunteers and clients will be joined by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and DC Primary Cares Association executive director Sharon Baskerville, who will help us mark the occasion.

After the ceremony (which I'm told will be brief!) interested parties can join us for a tour of our current facility, so you can marvel at how jam-packed our current workspace is, and join us in imaging how much more robust our community center will be when staffers are no longer forced to resort to using windowsills as file shelves.

Without giving too much away, I want to share part of a conversation I had with one of our clients, Michael Blue, who will be joining us at the ceremony to share some words about his experience with Bread for the City. Last week, Michael (pictured below) told me this:

I first found Bread for the City when I was working as a bike courier. I'd come here to pick up the DC [HealthCare] Alliance applications, which I’d then take over to the Alliance. This was one of the few stops that would actually have the packages ready for me when I got there—and time is money for a courier, so I appreciated that. And then I came to like the feel of the place. So I asked some questions and ended up as a medical patient here, then a legal client. Now I’ve started training for my CDL (Commercial Drivers License), but while I'm doing that the money isn’t flowing, so now I'm a food client too.

How you guys work in this sardine can so efficiently, I don’t know. Other organizations don’t have half the services and they have four times the space. It’s standing room only here but the bathrooms are always spotless. And it’s a rough clientele – people are sick, and they’re frustrated. But the people working here aren’t just there for a job. They’re here to help. And you’re not just a problem to be solved, or put aside somehow. You’re a human being and they’re here for you.